President Paul Kagame said the United States was kept informed of military developments in eastern DRC throughout the period leading up to and during the signing of the Washington Accords on December 4, 2025, pushing back against characterizations that M23’s subsequent advances violated the agreement.
Days after the December 4 signing, AFC/M23 fighters captured Uvira, which the U.S. State Department described as a clear violation of the Washington Accords. Kagame disputed that framing in his interview with Jeune Afrique. “Before the signing of the 4th of December, there had been months, weeks, or months of fighting,” he said. “I’m saying the understanding is selective because people think it was just something that happened after the signing of the agreement, which is not true.”
He said the military situation that led to Uvira’s capture was already developing before the agreement was signed. “It was about to happen even as the agreement took place,” he said. “The United States had been informed almost day in, day out, week in, week out. They had been informed of the developments. So it couldn’t be that it therefore just happened after the 4th of December in defiance of the signing of the agreement. That’s not true.”
He also said some actors in the peace process chose to interpret events selectively “to get to another level or to achieve a different kind of outcome as they wish.” M23 later withdrew from Uvira under U.S. diplomatic pressure, though the group still holds Goma and Bukavu. Washington warned that M23’s continued presence near Burundi’s border carries the risk of escalating the conflict into a broader regional war.
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